“That looks definitely like ivory…”
Or is it marble? But there’s no way a carriage could be decked out like this with marble.
First of all, does the pricing even match? Are there elephants on this continent? Could they actually cover something like this in ivory? Aren’t elephants a protected species? So is it marble? If it is, how heavy would it be if it was covered like that? Are the horses going to be okay?
The inside of the carriage was so lavish it made me wonder these things.
It was decked out with some material that looked like pure white stone, and despite being a carriage, it was a gigantic beast of a carriage that matched the length of a train car from her original world.
I remember there were eight horses when we got on, and it was already amazing that those horses could pull this carriage, given how flashy, big, and seemingly heavy it looked.
Even the seats arranged around the carriage were top-notch.
They definitely weren’t stuffed with straw or leaves; they were unmistakably filled with soft cotton, providing an incredibly cozy seating experience.
“Hey, sis, look at this! This round thing is smooth like Uncle Alex’s head!”
Rubina pointed at a round decoration on the armrest, looking up at Yona.
“Rubina, you can’t just touch anything.”
Worried it might break, Yona quickly restrained Rubina.
At that moment, Ceres, who had been watching from the other side, chuckled.
“If it breaks, we can just glue it back on. Feel free to touch and play around. I absolutely love children, so you can relax and have fun!”
“…Well, that’s true…”
“But if it was that fragile, wouldn’t there have been an issue when Kaiyak or James sat on it?”
That’s a good point.
At the tip of Ceres’ pointing finger, Kaiyak and James were lounging comfortably in their seats.
They were both over two meters tall and heavy, yet even slumped comfortably, the seats showed no strain whatsoever, and the carriage didn’t tilt one bit.
Right now, there were eight people in this carriage.
Ceres,
Ludvik,
Priest Vigrind,
Yona,
Alex,
Kaiyak,
James,
Rubina.
Despite all these people, the carriage was so spacious that it never felt cramped at all.
It hadn’t even been an hour since the carriage set off.
We were heading to the Infura Church Region, and though Yona’s group was accompanying as escorts, she couldn’t help but feel whether they actually needed an escort.
Surrounding the carriage were the Holy Knight Brigade members on horseback, accompanying them from all sides.
They were riding together.
According to Ceres, it felt a bit lacking for a party that included a hero and a saint, considering it was just an ordinary escort. But how extraordinary could an escort be?
“Okay, Rubina.”
At Ceres’ call, Rubina, who had been playing with Yona, perked her head up.
A plate full of cookies and a small bowl of honey for dipping the cookies.
Ceres showed the plate to Rubina, set it on a foldable table next to where she had been sitting.
“Now, Auntie wants to have a little chat with Yona, so why don’t you come over and eat some snacks?”
“Yes, yes!”
Without waiting for Yona to say anything, Rubina jumped down and dashed over to Ceres.
Ceres, lightly stroking her hair held up with a pretty butterfly-shaped pin, smiled warmly and moved aside.
“There are plenty of cookies, so if you want more, go ahead! Sit here and eat, okay?”
“Yeees!”
Rubina beamed with a happiness that was hard to contain.
As Ceres stood up and Rubina sat down, Ceres gently helped Rubina settle comfortably in her seat.
“Now, Yona, shall we have a little talk?”
Every time Ceres approached Yona, her silver hair flowed elegantly.
Yona’s white hair was so scruffy it looked like a dog’s fur, always sticking out no matter how much she brushed it — how she envied Ceres’ well-kept silver locks.
“What do you want to talk about?”
As soon as Ceres took the seat previously occupied by Rubina, Yona’s voice was filled with suspicion.
Although they had gotten a bit closer since their first meeting, it still felt off for someone of Ceres’ noble status to come at her so openly.
“Oh, it’s nothing important. Just a quick question for you… um, no, that’s not it.”
Ceres’ gaze shifted from Yona’s face to her right arm.
The Sacred Barrier was in tatters and utterly unusable, so Alex had wrapped her wide bandages around that right arm.
With every movement Ceres made, Yona’s heart raced faster.
It was just letters, but…
The direction they were heading was also the Infura Church Region.
Moreover, Ceres was the regent of the Duchy of Kapatia and also the chief elder of the Church of the Celestial God’s Kapatia branch, so if she judged Yona to be a heretic or a cultist…
Yona might end up sitting in a diagonal rear seat next to those cultists being interrogated in the basement of the Kapatia Cathedral right now. And who knows, maybe after some harsh torture, she’d even lose an arm or something!
In the back seat diagonally to the right, Yona might just find herself sitting. Then, after some cruel torture, it could be that one of her arms gets chopped off or something like that.
“Shall we keep this a little secret from everyone else?”
Ceres looked at Yona’s face and smiled slyly, then snapped her fingers with a ‘snap’ sound.
But nothing happened.
Rubina was still happily munching on cookies dipped in honey, smiling widely, while Ludvik, Kaiyak, and James were busy chatting among themselves.
Priest Vigrind, sitting all the way inside, was still glaring at Ceres and Yona with a fierce look.
“Alright, we can talk comfortably now.”
“Umm… nothing seems to have changed…?”
Because, well, nothing really had changed. At least as far as Yona could tell.
“Even if it seems that way, to others we must look like we’re just having a normal conversation, so you don’t have to worry, okay?”
If Ceres says so, then it must be true. Yona didn’t want to pry into something she didn’t understand. It was probably some kind of magic or something.
“Yeah, well anyway… what’s, what’s the topic?”
“Let’s see. What could the topic be… for example.”
Ceres’ gaze shifted back to Yona’s right shoulder.
And then she scanned her entire arm from that point.
“About that right arm of Yona that is covered in…”
Yona’s body froze slightly.
Ceres let out a long laugh as if she had already expected that reaction.
“About, uh, the Church of the Celestial God’s sacrificial text, perhaps?”
*
As the sun began to dip below the horizon, gradually preparing to settle into darkness, the carriage entered the city.
The inspection was passed immediately upon presenting Ceres’ badge, and the carriage sped along the main road directly toward the administrative officer’s residence.
The sudden arrival of such a guest left the administrative officer and civil servants looking as if they had been struck by lightning, but Yona felt no excitement whatsoever.
It would be more accurate to say that she had no time to worry about such ‘trivial’ things.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you eating?”
Alex cautiously pulled Yona’s plate closer and removed the carrots from it to move them to his own plate.
Then he pushed Yona’s plate back in front of her, but still, Yona showed no reaction.
“Of course, I took out all the carrots. Aren’t you going to eat?”
It was a pretty decent meal, nothing to complain about, yet Yona had this spaced-out look on her face as if she’d lost her mind.
“Hey, Yona.”
“…Huh, what?”
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
It wasn’t until Alex poked her in the side that Yona snapped back to reality.
“Uh, yeah, I should eat.”
Finally, she picked up her fork and answered absentmindedly.
She picked up a piece of meat that had been stewed in sauce, shoved it into her mouth, and chewed absentmindedly, lost in thought.
“Is something wrong with you?”
“N-no, nothing’s wrong.”
“Oh come on, that face doesn’t scream ‘everything’s okay.’”
“I’m really fine. Don’t worry. I just don’t have an appetite, so I’ll get up first. Please keep an eye on Rubina.”
“Uh, sure.”
As Yona put down her fork and stood up, Alex didn’t stop her.
In just a few hours, her face had gone pale, even more so than usual, which was quite strange.
“…Didn’t she leave any carrots on the plate? There were no bell peppers to begin with…”
He pulled Yona’s plate closer to check, but there wasn’t even a carrot, let alone a bell pepper, on her plate.
That night.
Yona stood in front of the door, taking deep breaths.
– Why is that engraved on Yona’s arm?
– It’s a scripture from an age without echoes.
– Aren’t you curious?
– Were you planning to step into Infula with the scripture used in the age of the Heaven’s Deity?
– Did you not think you’d be labeled a heretic?
Ceres’s whispering voice echoed clearly in her ears.
– Come to my room tonight.
– I’ll tell you more about it.
– I’ll be waiting.
‘…Hoo.’
Taking another deep breath, Yona finally steeled herself and raised her hand to knock.
Just as she did, the door slid open, revealing Ceres.
Seeing Yona’s shocked face, almost as if she forgot how to breathe, Ceres smiled softly.
“What were you standing there for so long? Looks like you’ve made up your mind to come in, so hurry up and step inside.”
At her words, Yona bit her lip and stepped into Ceres’s room.
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